


Tell you I set you apart

by the_sarcastic_summer (cloveremoji)



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, first fanfic, just fluff fluff more fluff, steve is bad at facebook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-29
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-06 21:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/740234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloveremoji/pseuds/the_sarcastic_summer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve just really likes the Starks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell you I set you apart

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Scientist by Coldplay. This is my first fanfic, so be nice<3

The first time Steve saw Howard, he was demonstrating a flying car, a flying car that ended up not working. But that wasn’t what Steve remembers about that. All he remembers is watching Howard win the crowd over and thinking, _I wish I had that much power, that much confidence._

And all of a sudden he did.

And Howard was by him all the time, taking tests and making sure everything was okay. He was smart. He was committed. And he was foundueing with Peggy. Peggy, beautiful Peggy, smart, sassy, Peggy. The Peggy that sometimes made Steve question if maybe there was a girl in the world for him. The Peggy that Steve could never beat.

But sometimes fondue is just cheese and bread, and sometimes even Peggy can be beaten.

At least he thinks he’s beaten Peggy. He sees glimpses of drawings of him in Howard’s briefcase. He and Howard spend nights in the lab, designing and redesigning his outfits, his shield, taking more and more blood tests, and testing his strength and agility.

Some nights they don’t do any of that. Some nights they just sit around and talk. Howard says he’d like to have a son someday. Steve agrees that one day a family would be nice. They talk about the stars, and how Steve swears they look different from the battle field. And when he loses Bucky, they don’t speak at all, only look at each other, trying to understand _why._

And then there’s Peggy, who Steve finds out has a crush on _him._ And all of a sudden he finds himself doing odd things, like putting her picture in his compass because he knows that that’s what he’s supposed to be doing, that she’s the one he’s supposed to like.

(He hopes she’s pleased, he really does. Because she’s smart and nice and she deserves someone that puts her picture in their compass, and sometimes he’s sorry that that someone isn’t him.)

He writes Howard from wherever he’s at when he has to be away. Howard never writes back; he wouldn’t know where to send the letters. But Steve just _knows_ he’s getting the letters, so he keeps writing. He writes about the other soldiers, and he writes about the friendship he has with them. He writes about how silent the days get without Bucky. Sometimes he’ll send a sketch of himself, or of the team. He asks about Howard’s day, and wishes him luck on all of his inventions, not that he’ll need it because Howard is brilliant, really the smartest person Steve’s ever met. And everything is going great and everything is fine.

And then there was the ice. He can remember flying the plane. He can remember talking to Peggy. Steve wants to say something about Howard, but he won’t. Not to Peggy. He’ll wait until he can see Howard in person and he’ll ask him to go out for a drink. Not as a date. He won’t call it a date. (But maybe Howard will.)

He wakes up and the radio is a lie, everything is a lie. He punches his way outside and he is surrounded by such bright lights, and Howard is dead.

Howard is dead.

So he goes on. He doesn’t do much, but he goes on. And then Fury comes and invites him to join the Avengers and he agrees, because what else is there to do?

And then he meets Tony Stark, and all hell breaks loose.

Of course he’s heard of Iron Man. He’s even seen him flying around, and he’s been proud. Proud that Howard got his son. Proud of his son that is such a hero.

But he meets him and everything changes. Because he’s horrible and arrogant and cocky and _nothing_ that Howard was and stood for. Because Howard was a hero in a lab, creating things that helped the world and Tony hides behind a suit and makes fun of his father, and _how dare he even use the same last name._ Steve yells and screams at him but in the end he just has to bear it, and pretend he isn’t a disgrace to the Stark name.

So they save the world and everything’s good and suddenly Steve is staying at Stark Towers with everyone else and Steve’s making breakfast for everyone and learning pop culture and _adjusting, actually adjusting,_ when he realizes that Tony is exactly like his father.

He sees it one night when he’s sitting in the lab, having Bruce help him set a Facebook page. Across the room, Tony is working on the suit, something about adding solar power, when Steve says, “Are Clint and Natasha together?”

“Why would they be together?” Tony asks, looking up from his desk.

“What’s some of your interests?” Bruce asks, looking at the computer.

“They’re always getting drinks together,” Steve responds to Tony, and looks at Bruce. “What do you want me to say? Saving the world?”

“I get drinks with Pepper all the time. Drinks are just chips and alcohol.” Tony shrugs.

Steve gapes at him. He wants to shout out, _you’re exactly like your dad,_ but he knows Tony wouldn’t take that as a compliment.

Bruce taps on the computer, muttering to himself, “Saving the world.”

And Tony and Steve don’t talk for the rest of the evening, because Tony has to work and Steve has to talk about his dislikes and Bruce has to explain that friending someone doesn’t mean you have to actually be friends.

And so a couple days go by without really seeing each other and this lasts for a bit until a couple nights after the time in the lab, Tony decides he wants to redesign Captain’s suit. So he orders Steve to be in his lab at seven sharp and Steve is there, like a good little soldier.

Tony greets him and tells him to sit down and he starts talking about his ideas and pulls out some sketches and _holy crap._

It’s just like Howard, everything is just like Howard, the sketches are just like everything Howard had thought up, and _why hadn’t he seen it before?_  The chin and the hair and _for Christ’s sake the eyes, the ones like little whirlpools, it was all there._

All of sudden Steve feels like puking and he feels nervous as he looks at Tony and he feels horrible, because this is _Howard’s son,_ and there’s no way in the world he’s going to have a crush on _Howard’s son._

And holy crap, did he just say he had a crush on Howard’s son? As soon as he thinks that, he knows, _he knows,_ it’s true because, _dammit,_ there’s something about the Starks.

So he watches Tony talk and nod and he pretends to listen but there’s only one thought running through his mind, and that’s, _there’s no way I’m letting this one get away, too._

But he wasn’t one for wooing people. He didn’t know how, especially when the person he was wooing was _Tony._

He settles for small things. He leaves flowers on Tony’s lab table, and notes on his pillows. He places sketches on his computer, and gives Pepper small gifts with the strict instructions give them to him with his nightly coffee. And it’s all sweet and cute and Tony shoots him smiles when he passes Steve in the hallway, and everything is going great and everything is fine.

But then he heads down to the lab one day, for no particular reason, just to see what the others are up to and there’s a box on Tony’s desk and the box is labeled _Steve._

The box is on its side, and papers are spilling out of it onto the desk and then there’s Tony, holding a couple of papers.

Steve feels sick as he surveys the scene and Tony looks up at him and arches his eyebrows.

Tony gestures to the contents of the box and says, “Letters. From you. To my dad, presumably.”

Steve walks over and looks at the letters. He recognizes his neat, cramped handwriting and _oh god he kept everything. Howard kept everything._ Steve picks up a letter and skims the contents, hoping that maybe Howard wrote something in the margins like he used to do with all of his blueprints, but no. Everything on all the letters is his, all his.

Tony watches him carefully before saying, “You never told me you and my dad were such good friends.”

“You wouldn’t have cared,” Steve says without thinking, because it’s true. Tony didn’t care about his father, he never did.

“I care,” Tony snaps. “Why would you think that I wouldn’t care?”

“Because you hate your father,” Steve says simply.

“I don’t hate my father. My father hated me. You know what I hate? Being the replacement Stark,” Tony says harshly, glaring at the letters. “You think I can’t tell you had a little crush? News flash, Cap, you aren’t exactly _subtle._ ”

“Tony, you aren’t…” and he stops. Because he is, he is the replacement Stark, and he feels terrible about it but it’s _true,_ it’s so _true._ And he starts to say something to Tony but he can’t, so he crumples into Tony’s chair and stares at the ground.

But then arms, strong arms encircle him and he feels Tony hugging him. He turns around and looks at him and Tony is giving him the saddest smile.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” he says. “Because I should care, I really should, and I should be _so_ mad, but for some reason, I don’t really mind.”

“But it’s not fair,” Steve chokes out. “It’s not fair that I’m just with you because your dad is dead.”

“Maybe it’s not like that. Maybe I’m a replacement but I’m not a replacement _Stark._ Maybe you just needed somebody to like, and you like me.”

“Maybe,” Steve agrees softly.

Tony grins. “Either way, I’ve decided to take advantage of your crush on me.”

He smirks and Steve feels lips against his.


End file.
